Fixing a Broken Daughter of Athena
by coral2000
Summary: Annabeth always gets into arguments with her stepmom. When she can't take it anymore, she runs off. She feels so broken inside, she takes it out on Tyson. But, before long, she fixes her broken life. Because time heals everything, even bitter words nobody wants to hear. Set during The Sea of Monsters


Note: Bold words are actual quotes from the Sea of Monsters. I don't own Percy Jackson and the Olympians, or any characters from it.

* * *

"Well, I didn't ask for this either!" screamed Annabeth.

Her stepmom stood on the other side of the toy-littered living room, arms spread protectively to cover the two little boys behind her. "You led them here! If you weren't so… _abnormal, _this family could be SAFE! You're a curse on all of our lives! _GET OUT!_"

"Fine! I'm _leaving, _you miserable witch!"

"Don't use that tone with me! Do you know what you are? A _mistake._ You aren't even supposed to exist!"

Fighting back tears, Annabeth whirled around and walked off with her head held high. She was breaking. The words stung worse than when she couldn't climb the lava wall fast enough, but she wouldn't show weakness. It didn't matter anyways. She was going to return to her real home, away from _her. She_ didn't understand anything. Annabeth wasn't a mistake at all, not even close.

Annabeth sort of wished a monster would attack them when she was gone.

But… she sort of didn't.

When she reached her room, Annabeth threw everything she owned into a suitcase, which took surprisingly little time. Most of her things were back in her cabin anyways. Almost nothing was in her supposed "home." Camp Half-Blood was where she belonged. Camp… with the strawberry fields, the Ares campers' taunts, the Stoll brothers pranking Katie Gardner, with Chiron and Malcolm and the climbing wall and the tennis courts and the Big House - Camp! A trillion times better than where she was then.

The door opened just when she was about to climb out the window.

"Annabeth, I'm sorry." Her stepmom was standing there, trying to look innocent. "I lost my temper. It won't happen again."

The bitter laugh that came out of Annabeth's mouth was harsh and yet pained. A broken sound. "'Won't happen again,'" she repeated. "I would believe you, but I'm not falling for that again. You can't expect me to forgive you every time this happens. We fight. Then, you come back, acting like you're so sorry, but I know you aren't, because it always happens again. You think I'm a mistake."

Her stepmom's kind face melts into a scowl. "Now, sweetie, I didn't mean that. Now, stop being ridiculous and unpack your bags. No more of this, okay?"

"No. Don't even try that with me. I know you meant what you said. I'm leaving, and I don't care what lame excuses you invented for yourself." Annabeth took a deep breath, jumped out of the window, and ran as fast as she could with a suitcase even though she probably looked really suspicious. She didn't care.

She'd felt like something was wrong for a while, so she went to see Percy first. When she saw him in the morning, drooling onto his pillow, she almost laughed. She looked away, embarrassed, as he changed, and with her Yankees cap on, sat on the fire escape outside as she listened in on the breakfast conversation between Percy and his mom.

Annabeth still feels mildly mortified as she remembers stalking Percy for the morning and discovering he kept a picture of her in his binder- in his _binder!_ And it was nice that he stood up for her. But she was still filled with a gnawing bitterness. She took out some of it on the Laistrygonian giant, but it was still pent up inside her, fighting to get out. It found a vent when she saw Tyson.

Tyson. He was a Cyclops- the reason Thalia was dead. He was the reason her best friend was dead!

In her frustration and anger, she called him the first think she could think of. A mistake. She regrets the words she said when she looks back, the way she had described him just so she could feel better when she was broken inside.

**"They don't always come out right." "No one wants them. They get tossed aside." "They grow up wild on the streets."**

Maybe it was herself she had described, leftover low self-esteemed thoughts she had for a while, brought out by her stepmom, who seemed delighted to tell her over and over again. The thoughts that broke her.

Camp was in ruins. Her home was in chaos. And soon, her anger returns and explodes because Percy is being such a _jerk_ and she can't take it anymore. He's always so nice and easygoing, but now Tyson, who he supported against her, is claimed as his brother and he becomes such a big… jerk. As noted before. Even though when she says anything that isn't complimentary of Cyclops he blows up, too. Anyways, she didn't say anything that mean to Percy, really, even though her anger works its way out from where she's trapped it. She had just suggested he work on the chariot with Tyson instead and stormed off. That wasn't too bad, right?

Anyways, she feels guilty later. Especially after their long quest. And when the camp was being slowly repaired, she felt her disarrayed life being fixed too. When she and Percy win the chariot race (working together again), she feels just so happy that she kisses him on the cheek. He flushes and everyone cheers. Filled with joy, she feels at peace with her life. She's been fixed back together so perfectly, you can't even see the cracks. And maybe later, she'd try again to make nice with her family, even if it blew up in her face.

Everything would fix itself anyways.


End file.
